Hostling and coaling station for locomotives



July 7, 1925. 1,544,774

L. G. PLANT HosTLING AND COALING STATION FOR LocoMo'rIvEs Filed Aug. ll, 1924` 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 July 7, 192s. 1,544,774

L. G. PLANT HQSTLING AND COVALING STATION FOR LOCOMOTIVES Fild Aug. 1, 924 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 July 7, 1925.

L. G. PLANT HOSTLING AND 'COALING STATION FOR LOCOMOTIVES July 7; l.1945'.n Y 1,544,774

' L. G. PLANT HOSTLING AND COALING STATION FOR LOCOMOTIVES Y Filed Aug. 1, 1924 4 sheets-sheet 4 Patented July 7, .1925..

PATENroFFIcE.-

LELAND G. PLANT, OF'CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

HOSTLING AND'COALING STATION'- FOR LOCOMOTI'VESL Application fue@ AugustY 1, 1924. Serin No.l 729,451.Y

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, LELAND Gr. PLANT, al citizen of the United Statearesiding at Chicago, in. the county of Cook and State of `illinois, have .invented cer-tain new and useful Improvements in Hostlingv and Coaling Stations-for Locomotives, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has .for its object to, prof vide at relatively low cost, a simple mechanical tire drawing, ash disposal, coal supplying andlocomotive charging means that canbe inexpensively and-reliably yoperated at intermediate points ina division, at terminals on divisions where the traiiic is small, and in any other situation where only a small number of locomotives are kept available and the maintenance or more complete hostling faT cilities would be uneconomical; whereby,or the sake of Y economy expensive overhead storage and distribution, and sublevel ash conveying, as a means .of restoring locomotives to service., can be dispensed with, and replaced bymeans fory keeping coalconstantly flowing to the locomotives from a distant point ol' supply and for keeping ashes moving from the locomotives to a distantA point' of disposal; and whereby, for the ysake of quick restorative, such coal supply and ash vdisposal may be carried on without interruption, other than that incident to the operation of the transiter means, and without expenditure for manual labor, or delay incident to unloading coal supplying cars that are notself cleaning or manually dislodging frozen coal in cars, whether ofthe dumping or nondumpmg type.

The invention proceeds upon the principle of providing a stationarily mounted or otherwise locally established elevating'A andcon-1 Y veying apparatus, for instance a radial crane having a bucket serving .in common for transfer of both `fuel and ash refuse.; a track for locomotives to be treated, having va lire refuse, .by gravity, trema locomotive on said track and to admit the elevating bucket from Vabove for removal of said refuse; also. a coal unloading'and refuse loading track-equipped with a coal pit, which coal pit is positioned to receive coal, by gravity, from, a car stand.-v

ing on the unloading and loading track and also` toadmit fromabove the bucket 'of the conveying and elevating apparatus, saidfune loading and loading trackbeing also adapted Y to presenta: car.y in position to receive ashes from Vsaid bucket;y the'coal pit, the coal.- ladened car oven s aidfpit, vthe ash-receiving car, the ashrece'ving pit, andthetender attothed to a locomotive thatyis overthe yash pit, being allwithin the-'orbital path of the yelevating and conveying -bucket,or sufficient;`

ly near to be served by the bucket; and the construction and arrangement. is such that y alocomotive may be brought into :the station and have itsl lire quicklyv cleaned,` and. its tender coaledsimultaneously, coal cars may be broughtin and kept in position yfor-A im; mediate transfer of', theirrvcoal, orso much thereof as can be removed by grabfbucket, directly to the locomotive tender; a coal car oanhave the remnantof its lload or whole loadvdnmped in casethe car is needed for ashes or. required to be moved from 'the coal pit for any othervreason; a. fiati bottom car that-is not selfdumping can -be unloaded by .m9211118 of the vertically accessible grabbucket so as, to largely eliminate the manual labor ordinarily involvedl in unloading these cars andcoal that does not readilyempty 'itself throughthe bottom doors of selffdump'- stored on the ground space between'said 'ash' pit andthe ash car loading track, particularly during the interval between the hostlin0r of locomotives; andthe whole serviee, ineuding the Shifting of Cars if need te,

vcan be performed by a single elevating and conveying apparatus of very vsimple construction. s f i l a 'In order. that `the invention may. be fullyz understood, the preferredv embodiment thereof has been illustrated in the 'accompanying drawings, in which j Figure 1 is a sectional elevationof a stadrawing pit that adapts the station to serve.

locomotives entering the station in either direction.

1 represents a radial crane mounted upon a-fiXed base 2 and having a boom 3 equipped with a grab-bucket 4 which, by reason of the reach and rotation of the crane. 1, has an orbital path within which it is adapted tov act upon subdivided material for picking up, conveying and depositing the same'as may be required. 5 represents a locomotive track adapted to present a locomotive 6 in position where its fire chute 7 can discharge into an ash pit 8 4and the latter is provided with an opening 9 through which it may receive the bucket 4. Ash pit 8 and locomotive track 5 are so located thatwhen a locomotive has a position on said track, which adapts the locomotive V,to discharge its fire into the ash pit, a tender 10 attached to the locomotive will be sufciently near the orbital path, toV bring them withina discharging position of the bucket 4. 11 represents an unloading and loading track for cars bringing in coal and takingl away ashes, and 12 l '7 represents a coal receiving pit positioned i relatively to the track 11 to rece1ve,by gravity, coal brought in by a car 13 upon said track. The coal V.pit 12 and track 11 are so located relatively to the orbital path of action of the bucket 4 that the bucket may dip into the pit 12 to pick up coal to be conveyed to the tender 10 or dip into the car 13 occupying a position over this pit, when it is desired to transfer coal directly from 1': the car to the tender; and another car 14 (Figure 2) may simultaneously or subsequently stand upon the track 11 in a position to receive ashes transferred by the bucket 4 from the ash-pit 8. The ash-pit 8 and the coal pit 12, in the arrangementhere described are required to have but relatively small capacity as theyreed serve only provisionally or Vtemporarily to contain their respective materials, since the crane is alf ways in a position to transfer' material from serve as ash-receiving cars 14 and keep the ash-pit 8 sufliciently clear of accumulation, Y

to receive the discharge from-incoming locomotives.V According to Figure 4, the locomotive track 5 is provided. with an additional ash-pit' 8a having bucket receiving opening 9a ,and otherwise similar to the pit 8, but positioned to receive ash discharge from a 'locomotive 6a headed oppositely to` the locomotive 6 of Figures 1, 2, and 3, and without taking the tender 10"L thereof out of charging range of the bucket 4 while in position for ash discharge. Figure 4 further illustrates theavailability of the station for .spotting a car, such as 13a, where it :if:

may be unloaded by the crane, through its entire length and while still leaving the coal pit l2 accessible to the bucket.

in addition to serving the common purpose of transferring material to and fro bebe charged largely by picking up coal directly from the cars that bring it in, the coal pit 12 is always in vposition to receive from the coal car 13' any coal that inay'remain therein which cannot be picked up by the bucket 4,y and is always accessible to the bucket 4 for transfer of coal from the pit to the locomotive tender, or to the provi- .sional storage pile above referredjto, whenever the capacity of the pit is less than the quantity that should be kept on hand for use in case of emergency or failure of coal cars lto arrive.

A station having hostling and coaling facilities arranged as herein described, affords means for very rapidly and inexpensively restoring to service a locomotive requiring its fire to be cleaned and its coal supply to be replenished from either selfcleaning or non-dumping cars, and thus reduce to a minimum the detention of the 'locomotive from its service track, which is very important under present day railway practice; and the Vdescribed arrangement for accomplishing these results, byv reason of its adaptability for keeping the material in motion, from the point of fuel supply, through the element of consumption, and thence to the place of ultimate disposal, eliminates the necessity for a plant or station of large, expensive dimensions.

The arrangement and relationship of elements entering into combination to produceV the hostling and coaling stations herein described, including the order in which the elements occur in the orbital pathof the bucket of the single .stationarily mounted pick-up and conveying device, enables the-accom'- .ne Y) could be accomplished by the same elements in a different order.

l claim:

l. A hostling and coaling station for locomotives comprising an elevating and conveying apparatus having a pick-up and discharge bucket adapted to act at points in or adjacent to a predetermined orbital path; a coal-receiving pit and an ash-receiving pit each having an opening presented upwardly in said path through Which it is adapted to admit said bucket from above; a locomotive Y track positioned relatively to the ash pit,

to adapt a locomotive to discharge its lire refuse into said pit and simultaneously to present its tender incoal-receiving relation to said bucket; and a coal unloading and ash loading track positioned*relatively. to the coal pit7 to present a coal car in gravity. delivery relation to said'coal pit and simultaneously an ash-receiving car in relation to said orbital path Which adapts it to receive ashes from saidbucket.

2. A hostling and coaling station for locomotives comprising an elevating and conveying apparatus having a pick-up and discharge bucket adapted to operate at points in or adjacent to a predetermined orbital path; an yunloading and loading track established to present a coal car in position for removal or' its contents by said bucket and simultaneously to present an ash car in position to receive ashes from said bucket; a coal pit located to receive coalby gravity from a coal'car on said track as aforesaid, and having an upwardly presented opening positioned in relation to said path to adapt it to admit said bucket, a locomotive track positioned relatively to said path to adapt it to present a locomotive tender in coalreceiving relation to said bucket; and an ash pit positioned relatively to said trackV to adapt it to receive ashes by gravity from a locomotive, when the tender attached to the locomotive is in the coal-receiving position aforesaid, said ash pit having an upwardly presented opening positioned relatively to said path to admit said bucket.

3. In a hostling and coaling station for locomotives, a stationarily mounted elevating and conveying apparatus provided With a pick-up bucket having an orbital path of operation, a locomotive track having an ash pit positioned in relation thereto to receive ashes by gravity from a locomotive stationed on said track, and at the same time adapted to admit said bucket, from above, for the removal of accumulating ashes; a loading and unloading track adapted to present cars for supplying coal to and removing ashes from the station, a coal-receiving pit positioned in relation to said unloading and loading track to receive coal by gravit-y Y 'from a car standing thereon, and also adapted to admit said bucket from above; said tracks and pits being positioned relatively to said elevating and conveyingapparatus, to place simultaneously in the orbital path of operation of said bucket, the coal-receiving pit, a coal car While standing in dumping relation to said coal-receiving pit, an ash-receiving car on said loading and unloading track, the ash pit beneath the locomotive track, and a locomotive tender While attached to a locomotive standing over the ash pit.

e. In a hostling and coaling station for locomotives, a stationarilymounted elevating and conveying apparatus provided With an elevating and conveying bucket having an orbital path of operation, a locomotive track having an ash pit positioned in relation thereto to receive ashes by gravity from a locomotive stationed thereon, and vertically accessible to said hoisting bucket for the removal of ashes accumulating therein; a loading and unloading track adapted to support cars for supplying coal to and removing ashes from the station, a coal receiving pit positioned in relation to said unloading and loading track to receive coal by gravity from a car standing thereon, and also vertically accessible to said hoisting bucket; said tracks being positioned relatively to said hoisting and conveying apparatus, to place directly below the orbital path'or' operationv of said bucket, a coal car on said unloading and loading track, a coal receiving pit, a locomotive tender on the locomotive track, an ash-receiving pit, and an ash-receiving car on said loading and unloading track in the order named.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, this 30 day of July, 1924.

Y LELAND G. PLANT. 

